Mass Effect: After Story
by SereKrios
Summary: Omega has been retaken, Shepard's evil clone defeated, The Reapers have been destroyed forever. But what happens next? This story starts 5 years on from the events of ME3. Also it is my first fic so constructive criticism is welcomed. Mindless hatred will be stoically ignored. Keelah se'lai!
1. 1: Rannoch

**_Hey everyone, this is my first fic so constructive criticism is welcome. I'd like to think of interesting stuff to say but I can't :p so for now let's get on with the story..._**

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_After the Reaper war, civilisations rebuild, fires are rekindled and hope is created..._

**_John_**

The armoured man stood atop the cliff, looking down on the bustling Quarian city below. "Only five years and they've already restarted their civilisation", he mused. He couldn't help but contain his pride. Quarians and Geth working together. A new Rannoch. This was his handiwork. And the house on the mountainside. He loved that house the most out of anything he had created.

"Shepard-commander"

A roboitc voice called out from behind the armoured man. A Geth, one of the robotic servants of the Quarians was standing there. "Counterparts, not servants", he reminded himself.

"Don't call me Commander", he said to the Geth unit, rather rudely. "Dammit, I have to stop speaking like that."

"Our apologies, Shepard-sir. We have only come to enqire about the wellbeing of Master Rael. We have heard he is sickly."

"Not Shepard-commander, not Shepard-sir, it's just John now. And Rael is doing well, just still getting acclimatised to his suit."

"Ah. Thank you, John. We will resume our duties." The armoured automaton walked back down the mountanside path.

"Rael..." Shepard's adopted Quarian son, his wife Tali's biological child was having problems with his protective suit. As a five-year-old Quarian, Rael had graduated from rolling around in a protective synthesised bubble, and into wearing his first environmental suit. The transition was not always seamless. Tali was worrying her head off about him, and John could do little to console her. Hannah, John's biological daughter, however, was bright, rosy and robust. The two children were polar opposites.

"Just like me and -" Shepard's voice was cut off by an explosion from the city below.

"Well, I guess cities have acclimatisation issues as well." With a grimace, he activated his energy shields and jumped down, towards whatever was happening in the city below.

_**Tali**_

"-and that's when I asked him; wait, these are dextro cheeses, right?" Tali'Zorah vas Rannoch's laughter echoed around the conference room that Shepard had built in their mountaintop house. On the massive video screen was a projection of Liara, the Asari who served on the Normandy with Tali.

"So how's the rebuilding on Rannoch doing?" Liara asked. "We think we've had it hard on Thessia rebuilding from the Reaper attack, but the Quarians have to rebuild a whole civilisation!"

"You guys rebuilt the relays! Compared to that, anything looks easy!"

"You have a point," Liara laughed. "But how's your home life?"

_"_We're... Managing. Rael is still sick, poor little pyjack."

"Ha. You've become quite the doting mother, Tali. Civilian life has softened you."

"I still know how to use a shotgun!," The two laughed heartily again.

"Well, I have to go now, sorry," Liara said, and then whispered with a sad look on her face, "broker buisiness, I wish I could be with you guys."

Tali nodded a knowing nod, and then turned off the screen. She felt an uncomfortable itch on her face, and tried to scratch it, through her visor. "Oh Keelah," she said under her breath. It seemed like her own body was making fun of her. "Those salarians had better come up with a way to get us out of these suits soon."

Tali walked out the door of the conference room, following the happy sounds of her two children playing. Looking through the door of the children's room, she saw the two of them there, human Hannah and Quarian Rael, different in so many ways, but in perfect harmony. Yet she wasn't content.

"I have John," she thought aloud. "I have a new Rannoch, a house on the homeworld, just like my father promised. I have two beautiful children. I have friends now, not just comrades. But why am I still unhappy? What is wrong with me?"

There was no reply.

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**_Well that's it for now. I hope to update more in the future. Oh and also the chapters will be longer. Hopefully._**


	2. 2: Omega

**_It hasn't been too long since I uploaded the first chapter, but I'm in a good mood for writing so I decided to write some more... Enjoy._**

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_While Rannoch flourishes, someone somewhere else is looking for revenge..._

**_Rupert_**

Rupert Gardener looked up from the steaming grill. The smoke stinging his eyes, he croaked out "Order up!" The weight of the years, coupled with a lifetime of inhaling cookfire smoke left his lungs in pain. "Damn... Humanity has come so far in technology yet we still can't have cooking equipment that doesn't give off smoke? If only I wasn't stranded on Omega..."

"Excuse me, sir." Rupert was startled. He looked up in surprise at the customer in front of him. The man had seemed to sneak up completely unseen. He had a polite way of speaking as well. That was rarer than hens teeth on Omega.

"Aha yes, what can I get you?", Rupert asked. He looked the stranger up and down, and was surprised to see that he was well dressed. "Perhaps a gang leader or a well off drug-smuggler." The man, though, had the ugly face of a thug, complete with scars old and new. "An odd combination," Rupert thought to himself.

"More of a question of what I can do for you," the man replied, casting a glare around the smoky cookhouse.

Rupert had come into contact with people like this before. Odd people, trying to get him into _schemes _or _plans_, usually of the criminal sort. "Sorry sir, you'll have to make your order and be quick about it, There's a queue forming."

"Oh, is there?"

"I'm afraid I don't quite know what you m-" Rupert was interrupted by a hail of bullets fired from outside the shop window. "What the-!" Rupert dashed out from behind the counter, his soldier training coming back into action. Grabbing a pistol from his belt (Rupert had always kept one handy upon coming to Omega), he flipped a table and took cover.

Most of the shop patrons had either fled or had been shot down. Mercenaries,were beginning to file into the cookhouse, firing at anything. "Trigger happy bastards." Rupert could see symbols of a man turning into smoke emblazoned on their armour.

"Come out, Mr Gardener! We won't hurt you should you choose to co-operate!" The well dressed man called out.

"Co-operate my left cheek! You just want me for some kind of criminal activity!"

"True, I don't deny it. But you can't have any fun these days without a little bit of crime. You should know, being a cook and all. You can't have a curry without a little spice."

"You're insane! If Shepard were here-!"

**BOOM!**

The table that he was taking cover behind exploded into shrapnel. With a roar, the well dressed man ran at Rupert, lifting him bodily into the air with strength unexpected for someone of his build. He'd obviously had extensive modifications done. "One of the main reasons I quit Cerberus," Gardener thought with disgust.

"I've tried being reasonable, Mess Seargant! Now it's no more Mr Nice Guy!"

Rupert mentally rolled his eyes at that one-liner. Too cliché, even for an Omega thug.

"Don't call me that," Rupert growled. "I'm not with Cerberus anymore."

"Maybe you'll feel better after a little nap..."

"Huh? What do you-" The man's Omnitool lit up, collided with his face, and Gardener thought no more.

_**Aria**_

Aria T'loak, reinstated de facto ruler of Omega, was not happy. She rarely ever was. Something big had happened. Something... Undesirable. Her lavishly decorated loungeroom overlooking the newly rebuilt Afterlife club was on the verge of being torn apart by a biotic storm of anger.

"It j-just happened a-all at once, Miss Aria," stammered Farkan, Aria's head of security in the market district. The Batatian's eyelids were twitching. All four of them.

"I understand that, Farkan. What I don't understand, however, is how a man who I specifically placed under protection could have just been attacked and taken away without security so much as batting an eyelid!"

Aria started to glow blue. Farkan, being an established Batarian thug, well versed in the art of _not fucking with Aria_ backed away.

"You'd better rescue this man, Farkan, or I will, to borrow a catchphrase from an old friend of mine, FLAY YOU ALIVE! WITH MY MIND!"

Farkan cringed, and slowly backed away from Aria, careful not to make any sudden movements.

Aria heaved a sigh. Why couldn't goons be a bit more _intelligent_? Is it so much to ask? Suddenly, Selyne, Aria's secretary, walked into the room. "A bounty hunter is here to see you, Miss Aria. He says he served with Commander Shepard."

"Ah... That one. Send him in."

The doors opened, and an orange-armoured bounty hunter with a large arsenal of guns and an extremely scarred face limped in.

"Aria!" The man smiled a lopsided smile. "It's been a goddamn long time!"

"That it has, Massani. That it has."

"So who's this codger you need tracking down?"

"Ahh... His name, well, alias... Is Fade. I think you know him."

"Goddamn right I do," Zaeed Massani replied, and his face split into a scary, malicious grin.

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**_Ok guys, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I hope you had a lot of fun reading it. Also, thanks for the follows and favourites I have received. It means a lot to me that people are already reading and enjoying the story. More should be coming :)_**

**_Keelah se'lai_**


	3. 3: The Sad Clown

**_Thanks for the reviews people, I can't reply yet but I'm reading them and taking them into account..._**

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_A ship heads for Rannoch, old friends reunite..._

**_Joker_**

Sitting in the reclining, leather-padded pilot's seat of his brand new Axiom Mk3 leasure ship, Jeff "Joker" Moreau was far from comfortable. He hadn't had a call from Tali and Shepard for almost a year. "_It's not normal... They like to keep in contact with the old crew... Maybe something happened."_

_"_Is there something troubling you, Jeff?" The metallic voice of EDI, the Normandy's old AI, and not to mention, Joker's one true love, was amplified over the small ship's loudspeakers.

"EDI, when I tell you to go to go and do some girly stuff once in a while, it means I need some time alone," Joker said angrily.

"I thought we were... Partners."

"EDI, we are, but... Ok fine I'll tell you. Come here so we can talk face to face."

The well-oiled doors of the cockpit slid open, and in walked EDI's smooth, robotic mech body, that she had stolen from a Cerberus synthetic. "What troubles you, Jeff?"

"Ok. It's Shep and Tali... I think something's happened to them... I'm worried..."

EDI could see that Joker was not being his usual self. "Perhaps we should pay them a visit, Jeff."

_Tali_

John Shepard, Tali's husband, was late home. "_No big deal"_, she kept telling herself. "_He probably just forgot to pick up the dextro ice cream."_

_"_Mommy... When's Daddy coming home?" Rael's pining, sick voice worried Tali even more.

"Don't worry, Rael, he's still out shopping." Tali tried to be comforting, but that was hard after a long career of shooting people in the face.

"We want our Daddy!", said a robotic voice. "_A Geth?" _, thought Tali. "_What on Rannoch...?"_

Hannah, the human one of Tali and Shepard's children, came running around the corner of the hallway and smashed into Tali's legs. "I'm being a Geth, Mommy!"

"You're very good at putting on voices, little one," Tali said sweetly, "but try not to get into trouble before Daddy gets home."

"Okay Mom-." Hannah's voice was cut off by the sound of the front door **SWOOSH**ing open. Shepard was at the door, bleeding and injured badly.

Tali ran towards Shepard and held him up. "Hannah! Get the Medigel!"

"Uhh... Ohh.." Shepard groaned unintelligibly.

"It's alright, John. You're safe. What happened?"

The sound of Tali's calm voice brought Shepard back to his senses. As Hannah expertly applied the Medigel, Tali and Rael listened to Shepard explain his story...

_John_ _Shepard_

_"I was standing on top of the mountain, when there was an explosion in the city. I went to investigate..."_

John Shepard, shields activated, Omniblade glowing bright orange, ran through the streets of the Quarian city. More explosions followed the one he heard on the mountaintop. The explosions were coming from the warehouse district. The one where the Geth were manufacturing new units.

"_I needed to see what was going on at the Geth warehouse. No weapons, no support, but I charged straight in..."_

Running towards the Geth warehouse, Shepard saw six armed and armoured Quarians, with anti Geth slogans emblazoned on their weapons and armour.

"_Some kind of two-bit terrorists were guarding the way..."_

Shepard charged the Quarians, Omniblade against guns. A stab here, a slash there, John's blade cut through metal and flesh, not stopping to let them surrender.

"_I was too aggressive. Too eager..._"

One last Quarian stood before him. Shepard felt a bright red flash in the corner of his eye. Somehow, that flash was telling him to do it, to stab the little _bosh'tet_ in the face. He fought the urge.

He beat it.

Suddenly, Shepard was surrounded by six more terrorists. "Deactivate your Omnitool and put your hands behind your head," said the leader of the group in a thin, reedy voice.

Shepard was going to have to run for it. All the workers had cleared out, and there was no chance of help. "_God, biotics would be helpful right now," _he thought, envying Jack and Liara.

"_I had to do something..."_

He fired an incineration blast at the ground, and simultaneously jumped. The explosion sent him into the air, and the Quarians shot their guns wildly, trying to hit John.

The descent was another matter entirely. Shepard activated his Omniblade and timed his drop expertly to drop in on the back of a Quarian. He landed on the terrorist's back and stole his weapon, promptly shooting him in the back of the head.

"_To my surprise, I still remembered my training._"

"_A Phaeston V assault rifle. Excellent."_ Shepard fired at the remaining five Quarians decimating them easily, but leaving him grievously wounded, to limp up the mountain path back home...

"And that's how I got here." Shepard's family's reactions to his story were different. Rael puzzled, Tali worried, Hannah excited. "Next time you do that, take me with you!"

"There won't be a next time," Tali said sharply, "right John?"

Shepard stood up. "Well actually I was thinking of doing some more investigation into these anti-Geth terrorists."

"Please, Shepard. Not for a few days."

"Ok, Tali. Not for a few days. Come on, let's have lunch..."

_Joker_

Jeff Moreau stood outside Shepard and Tali's house, looking through the window. "They look happy, EDI."

"Yes they do, Jeff, yes they do."

Joker sighed. "Let's go, EDI." But EDI had already opened the door and walked inside. With a shake of his head, Joker walked in after her.

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_**Oh wow, the chapters are getting longer, I don't believe it! Oh and also, some people are wondering about Rael's biological father and Hannah's biological mother. That will be explained next chapter. Stay strong!**_

_**Keelah se'lai!**_


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